All in the Family

Chapter 17: Through the Trapdoor

Did a lot of cutaways and showing all point of views during this chapter, which is probably why it's double in length to any other chapter...hope you enjoy!

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At first, Alice thought they were still in the Forbidden Forest. Whatever she'd landed on this time certainly had an earthy feel to it, but also thicker, like she'd landed on roots of a tree this time. She tried to get uneasily to her feet, overbalanced, and landed again this time on her rear in the completely dark cavern.

At least this time they weren't all smashed together in a tiny cupboard, wherever they were was roomy enough she couldn't even reach out and find Frank. It wasn't until she didn't hear the others groan, now familiar from doing this each time they were moved about, that she froze.

For the first time in these moments, the place they had landed was not quiet. It wasn't particularly loud either, but a noise all the same. Not a whisper of wind through trees even, as had been present in the past, but like a rumbling, almost a purring, or a snore, but so much louder she must not be hearing it right.

"Frank," she whispered as quietly as she could, not wanting to disturb, well anything. With no clue what was going on, and that dead unicorn still hovering behind her minds eye, she erred on the side of caution as she tried to inch forward after hearing no response.

Then she realized, she couldn't move.

She'd been so numb and dizzy like all the other times, it wasn't a feeling you got used to, that the realization her legs were slowly losing feeling hadn't immediately registered. If anything she'd tried to ignore that numbness, now she was entrapped all the way up to her waist.

"Frank!" She shouted now for anyone to hear her. She still had her wand on her, had never put it away while out in the Forbidden Forest, but honestly wasn't even sure to trust herself what spell to use. With no clue what was holding her down and not knowing if Frank were nearby or whom she may accidentally hit, casting a spell at random could do more harm than good.

Refusing to let indecision cost her life, she raised her wand to the ceiling instead and shouted, "Lumos!"

What was even momentarily illuminated nearly made her scream all over again. The other seven were all struggling in vain against thick vines, already entrapping either their chests or mouths the moment they'd landed so none could shout a spell in even the hopes to escape. Limbs were already lost in the sea; pain, shock, or the plant itself forcing their only weapon away. Alice seemed to have mercifully landed the farthest away, the creepers having had to inch forward to grab at her but quickly drawing her back into the thicket.

Someone was less than an arms length away, wrestling with all his strength and gnashing his teeth as if trying to bite right through them, but more only took place, surely covering his face very soon! Not Frank's though. For a moment she thought it was Sirius, then the youth of those deep black eyes, not grey, registered him as Regulus.

The light from her first spell was already dimming, soon the deadly plants would circle up to her own lungs. "Frank," she pleaded again, still desperately searching for him, knowing he could have listed off a hundred deadly plants and surely this one, but she couldn't think of a single one right now, nor spot him amid all the moving bodies writhing as much as the feelers. The only useful tool of knowledge was fire, most everything magical or otherwise would run from that, right? What if she was wrong, what if fire somehow just made these stronger?

With only breath enough for one more spell, she had no other choice but to redirect her now dim wand towards her feet and desperately shout, "Caeruleum Igne!"